Carry You
by MademoiselleFantastique
Summary: Ryder feels broken and left. He's alone and quit Glee Club due to the whole "Katie"-thing. But he only realizes how much he actually misses them when they speak the truth. A truth he probably needed to hear. / Season Four Finale!


Hello!

I just don't really know what to say here so we skip that crap and I let you read, alright? Have fun!

* * *

"What the hell do you want here?", Ryder looked down at his feet and tried to hide his embarrassment. His gaze was fixed on the ground of the stage where he had just performed his song. But he wasn't ready to face her.

"I heard you sing", she replied with soft voice, her blue eyes boring into his weak shape. She wondered what had made him so unhappy but then mentally slapped herself.

_You are a stupid girl, Marley. Why are you even thinking about that? It is so clear. You are just making it worse._

But nevertheless, Marley was tired of it all. She was tired of this game and of their fight. Ryder and she were friends, why couldn't everything just stop and be good again? Because life was supposed to be unfair, she guessed. She had no other explanation at all.

"I like that song", Marley added calmly and slowly made her way onto the stage to be closer to Ryder. She knew exactly that he was a bit shy just like she had been around Jake but that was a long time ago. Now, she only wanted her friend back.

"Of course you do. It's your favorite song", he answered with a forced smile as he looked up just to see how close she was.

She chuckled: "How do you know?"

For a few seconds, he hesitated but when a small smile escaped her lips, he started to smile again. She hadn't been serious; she just wanted to mock him. But when blue met brown, words were useless. Both of them knew exactly what the other felt and it was hard to ignore that fact.

Ryder had a lump in his throat and felt like he was about to say something dumb or something that would piss her off.

_Pull yourself together, idiot. Or do you want to lose her again?_

"Why are you here, Marley?", he tried again to find out what she had been wanting from him. But how could she tell him that she had been looking out for him ever since the school day started? That she skipped Biology just to look in the auditorium for him? The answer was simple, she just couldn't. There were a few things you couldn't even tell your best friend. Especially when you knew that your best friend was or had been in love with you.

"Come here, Ryder", the brunette said, ignoring his question, and opened her arms. And before he could protest, she had already hugged him tightly.

"What's that for?", she could hear him grinning but Marley couldn't care less. They were best friends, she had been missing him. "Can't I just hug my best friend?"

"Well, you just did, didn't you? But what did I do to earn such an honor?"

They broke away from each other as Marley smiled shyly at him: "You know, you don't need something to do to get a hug from me. We are friends, Ryder."

He didn't smile back. His thoughts were still at Unique's. For such a long time she had pretended to be Katie and Ryder was ashamed to admit that in her presence he had felt happy, _understood_. He had even started to develop romantic feelings for her but… they were gone. And he didn't even know why. Was it because she was transsexual? Because she was black?

_No, it's not that_, a small voice inside his head said, _she lied to you and you don't want to forgive her._

"What is on your mind, Ryder? You can tell me, you know that."

Marley was such a sweetheart, had he ever told her that? Probably not in the real world but in his mind he had told her that a thousand times. "Kati-… I mean Unique."

"Oh."

Exactly. _Oh._ He didn't know what else to say, Marley was completely right.

"Marls, can I ask you something?"

She nodded silently as if she was happy to change the topic but Ryder wasn't going to do that, definitely not. "Why did you lie to me?"

Her eyes blinked rapidly before she gasped a surprised "_Excuse me_?". The tall guy rolled his eyes at her tone – she knew exactly what he was talking about. "Don't pretend, Marley. You know perfectly well what I asked you. Why did you lie to me about being Katie? You didn't have to, why didn't you silently sit there like everybody else and just waited for Unique to come out and be honest with me?"

The brown-haired girl looked at her filed nails and tried to avoid his stare; his eyes were boring into hers. "Unique and I are friends. She accepted me for who I am", she answered vaguely, waving her hand in the air like she wanted to shoo a fly away.

"So do I, Marley. That is not an explanation. I want you to be completely honest with me. Is that too much to ask for? I have been lied to for the past weeks. Don't you think I'm sick and tired of it?"

Marley bit her trembling bottom lip at his little speech, understanding perfectly well what he meant. She didn't want to lie him but she didn't want to tell him the truth either. She just couldn't, she had promised! "I'm sorry, Ryder, I really would tell you everything. It's just, I can't tell you._ I promised_."

He shook his head slightly, reaching out for Marley's hand but she backed away, shaking her head. "I can't give you answers, Ryder; this is not my thing, not my turn to speak. If you want to know, you have to ask Unique. She's the only one who knows", she said with confident voice and looked sternly at him.

He nodded silently. "Don't go, Marley. Stay here with me a little longer, I'm thinking about something and I want to ask what your opinion on it is."

She eyed him a little suspicious before she took a few steps forward and took his hand in hers, smiling at him: "I'm here. What do you want to talk about with me?"

"I… I think I want to… yeah, rejoin Glee", he stated simply, trying hard not to look at their hands and instead into her face. Her eyes were shining in excitement: "Are you serious, Ryder? That would be awesome!"

He looked at her in amazement: "Do you really think?"

"Of course! Ryder, we are friends! And when you want to come back to Glee, I won't say no! It would make things so much better, don't you think?"

He nodded and a small smile escaped his lips as she said with mysterious voice: "But I need to ask you a favor."

"What's it?"

"You'll see."

* * *

_A few days later in the auditorium._

"Marley, I am here-", Ryder wasn't able to finish his sentence as he recognized the people he had spent the past few months with. The Glee Club was standing in front of him, smiling and beaming at him. Mister Schuester was looking proudly and with teary eyes at all of them.

"Ryder", Marley stepped forward and opened her arms before she looked around the club. Kitty, Tina, Jake, Artie, Joe, Sugar, Brittany, Sam, Blaine, even Unique were standing on the stage, beaming at him.

"What's this rubbish about?", Ryder questioned, clearly confused. Jake stepped next to his girlfriend and looked at his old friend: "Marley here told us what was going on… that you are thinking about rejoining."

Ryder shot Marley an "are-you-serious?"-look but she simply nodded and continued to smile at him. "So what? This doesn't mean I will", Ryder replied quietly but felt how his temper was rising. How dare Marley to just go off and tell the whole Glee Club? That wasn't how it was supposed to be!

Jake ignored his sassy reply as Kitty stepped forward, her arms crossed, as she snapped at him: "Lynn, pull yourself together and act for the first time in your life like a man. I get it, okay, we all get it. You are sick and fucking tired with all this bullshit."

Mister Schuester sighed: "Language, Kitty, language."

But the blonde cheerleader continued without letting someone know that she noticed her teacher: "But it's _okay_. We _understood_. You have every right to be pissed about this but it is no reason to just shut yourself up from us."

Ryder clenched his fists and bored his eyes into the ones of Kitty who just stared back, clearly annoyed. "How do you know if it's okay or not? You're not me, are you?"

Blaine, who sensed a fight coming up, stepped forward as well and cut in: "The thing is, Ryder, we know that you are confused and hurt. But you are not alone and we want you to know this."

The lights went off and a simple melody started to play before Ryder even had the change to answer Blaine properly. Mister Schue sat down and patted at the seat next to him, indicating that Ryder should sit down as well. He did as he was told as he watched the performance from the Glee Club in front of him in amazement.

_[Marley:]_

_Don't ever say you're lonely, just lay your problems on me_

_and I'll be waiting there for you._

_The stars can be so blinding when you get tired of fighting,_

_you know the one you can look to_

_[Blaine, Artie:]_

_When the vision you have gets blurry,_

_you don't have to worry, I'll be your eyes._

_It's the least I can do, because when I fell, you pulled me through,_

_So you know that_

_[Brittany, Tina:]_

_I'll carry you, I'll carry you, I'll carry you._

_So you know that I'll carry you, I'll carry you, I'll carry you._

_[Jake:]_

_I know it's been a long night, but now I'm here, it's alright._

_I've done my walking in your shoes; we'll take each step together, until you come back to center._

_You know that I'm not the real you._

_[Joe, Sam:]_

_And when the vision you have gets blurry,_

_you don't have to worry; I'll be your eyes._

_That's the least I can do, because when I fell, you pulled me through_

_So you know that_

_[Everyone:]_

_I'll carry you, I'll carry you, I'll carry you_

_So you know that_

_I'll carry you, I'll carry you, I'll carry you_

_[Kitty and Marley:]_

_Like you've been running for hours and can't catch your breath,_

_the demons are screaming so loud in your head._

_You're tired, you're broken, you're cut and you're bruised_

_but nothing's too heavy just hold on, I'll carry you._

_[Kitty:]_

_I'll carry you._

_[Joe:]_

_So you know that_

_[Everyone:]_

_I'll carry you, I'll carry you, I'll carry you_

_So you know that_

_I'll carry you, I'll carry you, I'll carry you_

_So you know that_

_I'll carry you, I'll carry you, I'll carry you_

By the end of the performance Ryder had felt how tears had started coming up in the corner of his eyes and even Mister Schue, who had noticed, had patted his back gently. "Ryder, I know I should've not done what I did but it happened. I don't want you to give up on Glee because you are only angry on _me_. Don't give up something as wonderful as this, don't insulate yourself from us", Unique said at the end of the performance. Brittany hugged her as her voice cracked at the last bit of the sentence. Even Kitty seemed to look a bit upset at this.

"You know, Lynn", the blonde said as she stepped towards him, "I am a real bitch and I know that. Hell, the whole school knows. But whatever I did, no matter how horrible I treated you, or Rose here or someone else… you all stood by my side and helped me when I was down. And Ryder-"

Everyone was quite surprised that she had called him by his name and not his surname.

"- you've opened yourself up to us, let us know what happened to you so many years ago. I expect you wouldn't have done this if you didn't trust us, am I right or am I right?"

"Kitty's right", said Joe now, which earned him a satisfied look by Kitty, as he stepped in as well, "we're a family and we hold on together. And you are a part of this family as well, Ryder. If you want it or not."

Marley was the first one to notice that her friend had tears in his eyes so she ran off the stage to hug him tightly. And the rest of the club followed her, all hugging Ryder. And in that moment, he knew everything would be alright again.

There was nothing to fear because he wasn't alone. He had a whole family by his side.

* * *

So, the song I used was 'I'll carry you' by Union J, a British pop band and I personally like it very much.

This is how I imagined the end of season four, not all this crap with Ryder leaving. I mean, c'mon, he became one of my favorite characters, I can't imagine Glee Club without him. And the storyline itself kind of pisses me off because, seriously, I (still) don't see anything bad in the Unique/Ryder relationship. I understand that he was pissed off but he just ran away instead of taking chances and sorting things out. And why the hell did he quit Glee?!

(Sorry, I'm probably rambling too much but I just had to get that out). Nevermind, I hope you all enjoyed this little one shot and want to leave me reviews? (:


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